My First Perspective Animation

Well everyone, here`s my first piece of perspective animation. It`s turned out better than I expected and I feel quite pleased with it. I hope you all like it.

I started off by drawing some simple perspective lines on one piece of blank paper, then on another separate paper I drew some simple stick men, by carefully tracing the perspective lines to mark out the basic positions for each movement. I then produced the actual character motion, by tracing the stick men positions.

As you can see I`m animating the character getting smaller, walking away from the camera. But I had also originally planned to have the character walking back towards the camera, getting bigger (as these two images below reveal). But I decided not to go on with it as I found it would have been too much hard work and too much time consuming.

 

 

 

 

Animating Inspector Bluefin

I have now started to produce and animated sequence of my fish character. I am producing it as a cartoon introduction.

The images above are the original storyboard drawings.



The three videos below are early coloured footage's I have recently animated for the beginning of the intro, using the "Toon Boom" software. 

 

 

 

 

The first video shows a school of 4 fishes swimming past the screen. The other two videos also show the fishes swimming past the screen, but with bubbles added to the footage (more bubbles in each video).

 

In this video below, I have produced a fully coloured animated sequence of  "Inspector Bluefin" swimming towards the camera and holding up his magnifying glass to the audience. There are also meant to be some Bubbles in the scene as it happenes just as the bubbles in the videos above are clearing. But the bubbles will be added in the final editing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well today I had my first term`s assessment and I can tell you all it was very successful, although I won`t be given the full grade until sometime in February. I`ll let you all know when I get it.

 Anyway here`s the finished product of my "Inspector Bluefin" animation, which is produced as a cartoon intro to what could possibly become a real cartoon series in the future.

Inspector Bluefin is a heroic police fish who solves crimes, and keeps everything in order in the ocean. In this intro, as he is looking for trouble he witnesses a gang of Criminal fishes, who have robbed a local under sea bank. Bluefin then chases after them to bring them to justice. The criminals attempt to slow Bluefin down by throwing back objects like sea shells and rocks, but despite their best efforts Bluefin corners and captures them inside a trench. As the criminals are imprisoned for their crimes Bluefin is cheered and congratulated by the villagers for salvaging the stolen money.

I know the animation is bit jumpy in places but some things went wrong with the final editing. It could have been better if I`d have had more time to work on it, but I just had to get it done on time for my assessment. I`m very happy with how some of the scenes have turned out, while I`m not so happy with others. There were also meant to be bubbles coming out of Bluefin`s whistle, but I ran out of time before I could add them in. But so far I`m happy with how it`s turned out, I`ve spent many weeks working on it and I hope you`ll all enjoy it.  It has also become my longest and yet best piece of hand-drawn animation.

I was going to add a soundtrack, but I ran out of time. But in future when I get some time I may add some soundtrack.

Well everyone, I received a "B" grade for my "Inspector Bluefin" intro this week. I can tell you all that I feel very pleased with the grade because I didn`t expect that I was going to do so well.

 Anyway I just thought I`d post up this version (Above) of my “Inspector Bluefin” intro with soundtrack added to it. I still haven`t got a properly made soundtrack for the intro, this was just an old random track which I edited to the intro so that it could be shown at the university`s animation exhibition.

At the moment I feel that this track makes the video look more like a whole short silent cartoon than a cartoon intro and I`m not all that happy with it. But hopefully one day I will get a newly made soundtrack for the intro.

 NOTE: I don`t own the tracks. The comic chase music belongs to Paul Williams and I got the whistle and bubble sounds from the “Freesound” website. I also apologise if the whistle and bubble sounds are a bit faint, something went wrong during the editing. Anyway I just hope you`ll all enjoy it.

 

 

 

Inspector Bluefin (in 2D)

Now here are some practising 2D images of my fish character I did on "Adobe Photoshop". As I said in my previous post I have decided to animate him in 2D on "Toon Boom" as I prefer him better in 2D than 3D.

Creative Futures 2

My second year trip to the Bradford Animation Festival

 From the 14^th to the 17^th of November 2012, I went on a 4 day trip to the Bradford Animation Festival with my university group. While there, like in our first year we were watching a variety of animation films and cartoon shorts by different film companies. I enjoyed some of the animations, many that had good animation quality and interesting storylines to them, while there where others that I did not enjoy as much, such as when things in the animations get rather gruesome or if the quality of the animation`s story gets a bit dark and depressing. One example of these gruesome animations includes Swarming by Joni Mannisto which featured a boy killing and tampering with ants and insects, who then get revenge on him by swarming over him and eating him alive. And also Robert Morgan`s The Separation (2003) which was a gruesome Stop-Motion video about conjoined twins who decide to separate themselves, I felt they were certain scenes in it that where too frightening to watch.

We even saw a couple of full length animated films like ParaNorman, a Stop-motion film by LAIKA studios, Brave, a computer animated film by Disney/Pixar and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, a Stop-Motion film by Aardman Animations. I felt I really enjoyed these films as they had some very interesting storylines to them and they had great animation qualities. We also got to see some of the actual animators for some of these films, like Will Becher from Aardman Animations and Mark Shapiro from LAIKA studios. They would reveal the process and methods behind the making of these films, and towards the end of the lectures we got to talk to the animators to give them our views and opinions on the films. Furthermore we even got to see some of the actual Stop-Motion character models from the films, they were displayed by the animators in the main reception and we all got to take some photographs of them.

Overall I feel that I have really enjoyed my visit to Bradford, many of these professional animators we saw are working in areas of animation that I`m hoping to work in and by glancing at their techniques I feel that I have gained some ideas and inspirations for my future animations.

 

 

 

 

 

Fresh moving image festival

From February the 20^th to the 22^nd this semester I attended the “Fresh moving image festival” at my University. It was a festival where a number of lectures where being shown by many TV, Film and animation companies, many of which I attended. There were some lectures like the animation and Games lectures which I found quite useful and inspiring for my animation studies, while there where others like some of the TV or documentary dramas which I did not find quite as useful, as I felt they were not relevant for my studies. I also did not understand some of the stories which the dramas where telling, I found the atmospheres very distracting and very confusing.

Overall I feel that I have quite enjoyed the festival and I feel that I have gained some ideas for my future animation projects.

 

 

Creative Futures week 2

From Monday to Thursday, March the 4^th to 7^th I attended my second year`s creative futures week, where I attended a number of lectures.

I found some lectures like Melanie Hani`s “Heart Election Animation Research”, Linda Mccarthy`s “Making small films on a tiny budget”, and Jason Devitt`s “Make your own Damn movie” relevant and useful. They gave some very useful information which I felt where very important and relevant of how to make some well produced animated films, such as how to plan and develop a powerful story. They also gave me more ideas for my future animations.

They were also other lectures, like Aimme Henderson`s “Art to conservation” and Yasia Williams Leedham`s “Design and Illustration” which I did not find as useful since they represented different forms of art, like art sculptures and book illustrations. They were therefore not relevant to my form of study.

I feel that I have overall enjoyed the creative future`s week. After attending and gaining notes from these lectures I have gained some ideas and inspiration for my future animation projects. Furthermore I feel that I have now gained better knowledge and ideas of how I shall produce some of my future animation projects.

 

 

 

 

A Walking Little Girl (walking across the screen)

Now here`s another animation sequence of the little girl, this time walking right across the screen. With a total of about 48 slides, I`m very happy with how it`s turned out, I find it better than the walking in position version and I hope you`ll all enjoy it.

Inspector Bluefin (in 3D)

 

Here are 4 3D viewpoints of my cartoon fish character, Inspector Bluefin. I created the images using the software "Maya". I feel pleased with how the images have turned out but I would personally rather have the character in 2D than 3D. I therefore plan to animate that character in 2D when I produce the actual cartoon, using the software "Toon Boom".

A Galloping Horse

Well everyone here’s another animation sequence I’ve just put together. It’s a sequence of a Galloping horse, drawn from Eadweard Muybridge`s “Galloping Horse” photography (Which is the image below). The animation has turned out even better than I expected and I feel very pleased with it. I hope you all like it.

 

A Walking Little Girl

Here’s an animation sequence I’ve just recently drawn at the start of my second year in Uni. I apologise if the animation is rather faint, I forgot to black line the pencil markings. But still I hope it’s clear enough and I hope you’ll all enjoy it.

 

 

Here`s an updated version of the little girl. This time I`ve made it more clear by adding black pen lining to the pencil lines. I feel very pleased with how it`s come out this time and I hope you all like it.

 

 

 

 

Police fish image.

Here`s the second image I`ve created on the computer software "Maya". It`s a rough image of a Police Fish, a character I created in the summer holidays. For my second attempt at using "Maya" I feel I have done really well and I am hoping to carry on improving my skills for future images I produce.

My Contextual Studies Journal

Week 1: Design Thinking (Thursday October 4^th)

After attending the first week`s lecture I thought the lecture was quite interesting but nothing that special. The reason is because I did not fully follow some of the points that where being shown to us, e.g. the work of “William Morris” which tries to describe how to add beauty to the work of man. I also dis-agreed with the testimony of the futurists because I think that getting rid of Museums and libraries would be a disaster because it is important to look at our past to see how things have change over time, and it`s wrong to fight against things like moralism and feminism because everyone is equal to another.

On the other hand I thought the manifesto of the Bauhaus was quite interesting because they have some interesting pieces of arts with crafts which they see as both being equal. But despite being equal both arts and crafts have major differences.

Week 2: Design: What is Design? (Thursday October 11^th)

When attending this lecture I felt I enjoyed it better than the first one because I was able to understand it`s meaning and I quite agree with what was being discussed in the lecture. The lecture was discussing about the meaning of Design, which is the starting point of every project made by man, e.g. designing the blue prints of buildings, motor cars, trains and ships before doing the actual construction. Also by creating Storyboard designs for films and cartoons before producing the actual film.

The designer “Victor Papanek” states that Design should be about people and it should be made for people, not for its own sake. This makes me think about the sort of audience I would be aiming my cartoons, for example if it`s a child`s cartoon it shouldn`t contain bad language, too much violence nor anything that would scare children. One example of a mixed message cartoon is “The Simpsons” which contains a lot of strong violence and bad language even though it’s supposed to be for children as well as adults, yet the atmosphere writing appears to be more for adults.

I`d say that Design should be ethical as well as functional.

Week 3: Innovation (Thursday October 18^th)

In this lecture we were learning about the process of Innovation in relation to your own practice. We learned from the lecturer that Innovation is a way of bringing new ideas into your work and in order to get people to respond to your work in a positive way.
The main purpose of the lecture was to show how theory can link with Innovation and how you can improve your works in future to attract a bigger audience.

I think Innovation works better when individuals collaborate in groups by sharing and developing their own ideas together e.g. different individuals working together to produce films and TV programmes.

There are 3 steps of how innovation works, first we`d need a group of people who have the best skills to successfully completed our projects. Then we`d need a place for the project to be viewed by the public and last we`d need a reason for wanting to do these projects e.g. I do animation because I enjoy doing it and I like to share it with the public online to get some feedback about their thoughts on the animations.

I feel that I have quite understood the lecture and I have learned how I can develop further with ideas for my future animations.

Week 4: Designers and Ethics (Thursday October 25^th)

In this lecture we were being lectured about an ethical approach to design. The meaning of Ethics is how we can design and display our ideas to the public without exploiting them.

Ethics in relation to design mainly stands for whether we would participate with certain companies, and whether or not we would  be happy with working for them on certain projects. Such as if they want you to produce a commercial advertising Alcohol, cigarettes or something that might harm people. Another example of ethical design is trying to design something that is not technically needed by the consumer.

There are also good examples of Ethics in design such as producing useful items for the public. Like “Milton Glaser’s” rules for being an ethical graphic designer which describe how all designers should work and avoid exploiting people.

I feel that I have learned some important notices from this lecture on how I ought to be approaching design in an ethical way.

 

Week 5: A discussion of Ethics (Thursday November 8^th)

In this lecture we identified the full meaning of Ethics. Ethics have many relationships to our lives and work, for example it has barriers, social guidelines, beliefs and differences between how we all behave. We therefore have choices for how we can produce our works, just as long as don`t exploit or harm other people.

Ethics seems like a personal choice e.g. we all chose different ways to spend our lives. Ethics could also be a matter of intuition rather than a set of rules that we are supposed to follow because often there are no rules to fit our particular situation, for example there are no fixed rules on the internet and people have to make their own decisions to what they think is right. I think there ought to be some set of rules to show what you can and cannot do because that way you can see what is right and wrong and you can find your way of using your own personal code of Ethics. Although there is one problem, who is going to make up the rules and who is going to enforce them? For example I want to be an animator and I hope that my animated films will provide some useful messages to show adults and children the differences between right and wrong.

 

Week 6: Presentation of 3 dynamo model professionals (Thursday November 22^nd)

In this lecture we discussed 3 artists who were examples of dynamic role models.

The first artist was “Tricia Jones” who is a mosaic artist who works extensively throughout England and Wales. She reveals that mosaic is an attractive art form to children, due to their simplicity and colourful styles. She works from her own studio at home, running mosaic workshops.

The second artist was “Huw Davies” who is a self-employed, creative artist. He does many forms of art, including sculpture and photography. He advises that any art students should not be fake with their careers and should do what they want to do.

The third artist was “Nicola Farrell” who is a web designer. She views that enthusiasm and motivation counts a great deal and will get you where you want to be. She also believes that your skills can help you achieve your goals in life and career.

I think that role models can be important for some people who are un-sure what they want in life or they don`t know which directions their careers should follow. At the moment I`m un-sure for which direction my animation career is going to go. On my recent trip to Bradford Animation Festival I saw a lot of professional animators who are working in areas of animation that I`m hoping to work in.    

Week 7: “Moving beyond the limits of Language” - Autobiographical narrative in animation shorts (Thursday November 29^th).

In this lecture we were watching some animation shorts which all contained narratives that were Autobiographical. Although each one was animated differently, all featured a personal narrative that told a story. Each of the animations were analysed through Autobiographical themes, Narrative structure, Visualisation and Motivation.

I felt I quite enjoyed the animations that where shown, although I was finding some of them hard to follow because some like “The Runt” by Andreas Hykade where not that clear in their animation qualities and I felt they weren’t very convincing in their narrative structures.

I feel that this way of analysing an animation is a good way of breaking down the structure in order to simplify how a film works. At the present time I`m not making animations which are driven by narrative storylines, but I think this way of looking at the autobiographical structure of a film may help me to develop character narratives in my future animations.

Week 8: The sustainable lie-Green wash (Thursday December 6^th).

In this week`s lecture we discussed about the environmental problems in the world, due to the overconsumption of resources by the developed world. We talked about how costly recycling can be in environmental terms, for example although glass can be recycled it requires energy and transport to achieve the recycling. Although metal is recycled, things like aerosols release gases into the environment during the recycling process.

“Paper makes up 50% (by volume) of our domestic waste”.

We designers also play a key role in these environmental problems, this is because it is our job to design and make consumers want new things, even though they may not be needed. As an animator I mainly produce hand-drawn animations by using lots of papers. This has a small impact on the environment, but since hundreds or thousands of papers would be required for certain animation films or cartoons, this could be resolved by possibly getting these animation studios to require the planting of lots of trees to offset the environmental cost of using so much paper. 

I think it is important to recycle certain things so that more of the same materials can be re-produced. But we ought to be more careful about what we use to recycle because of all the costs and issues involved in recycling. While recycling is worth while it may be better just to reduce our consumption.  

 

Year 2

 

I have now began my second year at university where I shall be progressing further with my animation skills and knowledge. I will be developing most of my animations with the computer software "Maya". It`s quite a hard software to use but I've had a first try and I've produced an image of a chair, which you can see here above. I feel it`s a good first attempt.

My First Year Smudge "n" Click Animation

My First Year Stop-Motion (Group) Animation

My First Year Mixed Media Animation

Name:  Daniel Newton              

Module No: ARD407 Ideas & Concepts

Assignment Title: Mixed Media

Introduction

The requirements of this assignment was to create a short piece of music track of up to about 1 minute, and then create an animated film to blend in with the track by developing and exploring the themes of Sound, Colour and Weight.

As this was an individual assignment the first thing that I did was to undertake some research on the animations created by Norman McLaren, Oskar Fischinger, John Whitney and Robert Breer. I then produced my own soundtrack that conveyed lots of different colour and weight. The next stage of developing this project was to create an animated video to blend in with the soundtrack.

 Creating the sound track

After researching the animators that I have named I set to work to produce my soundtrack. I produced the track by tapping, flicking and clicking boxes and keys on the table and I blew some whistle sounds on my recorder musical instrument. I then mixed and edited the sounds together on the computer software “Audacity” by also adding in some more music effects, such as amplifying a louder volume, reversing some sections and adding some echo effects.

 Creating the film

After producing the soundtrack I set to work to produce the animation to blend with the sound track. I started off by carefully listening to the track, frame by frame (25 frames per second) and by using dope sheets I marked in every frame where each sound was recorded. By following the dope sheets I got to work on producing the animation by cutting out different shaped objects of different colours to match up with each sound. I used a Hammer shape for the Tapping sound, Musical notes for whistling, bird shapes for the flapping sounds and letters making up the actual words of Clicking and Flicking . I also used different colours for the backgrounds to match up with the different sounds and tones.

 Linking the film to the soundtrack

For the final stage I edited the soundtrack onto the animation itself. I did this at home by using the software “Windows Live Movie Maker”.

 Evaluation

I think the final product has turned out really well, and turned out a lot better than I expected. The soundtrack and animation were well synchronised and only slightly out of synch in some places but I think I can improve this in future when I get more experience with doping animation soundtracks. The strength of the animation is to show the different themes and tones of sound in weight and colour.

Above all I feel that I have done really well on this assignment as this is the second time I have worked individually on this type of assignment. I feel satisfied with how the final product has turned out and I feel very pleased with how the final product was received by my fellow students at the critique.

My First Year Cut-Out Animation

Name:  Daniel Newton 

Module No: ARD407 Ideas & Concepts

Assignment Title: Cut-Out

Animated Cut-out Characters: Based on an Apple and a Banana theme idea

Introduction

The requirements of this individual assignment was to create a short piece of music track of up to about 1 minute, and then create a synchronised  animated film to blend in with the track, to form a random character conversation.

In order to start this assignment the first thing that I did was to undertake some research on the animations created by Terry Gilliam, and Lotte Reiniger. I then produced my own soundtrack by gathering a lot of different track conversations from online radio stations. The next stage of developing this project was to create an animated video to blend in with the track.

Creating the sound track

After researching the animators that I have named I set to work to produce my soundtrack. I produced the track by gathering a lot of different conversations from various radio stations online such as Radio 1 and 4; I then mixed and edited the sounds together using the computer software “Audacity” to form a character conversation.

Creating the film

After producing the soundtrack I set to work to produce the animation to blend with the track. I started off by cutting out an apple and a banana to form the characters that I wanted to create. I cut out different eyes, eye brows and mouth shapes for each of the different letter sounds and also arms and legs for the apple and banana characters. In the end I decided not to use the arms and legs because the characters were always going to remain in the same location. By carefully listening to the track, frame by frame (25 frames per second) and by using dope sheets I marked in every frame where each letter of the character`s conversation where sounded and by following the dope sheets I got to work on producing the animation, by changing the mouth shapes in all the frames where each letter of the words where sounded.

Linking the film to the soundtrack

For the final stage I edited the soundtrack onto the animation itself. I did this at home by using the software “Windows Live Movie Maker”.

Evaluation

I think the final product has turned out really well, and turned out a lot better than I expected. The lip synchronisations of the characters appear to be well coordinated and only slightly out in a few places. This is something which could be improved in future assignments. One other minor fault is that the background moves slightly in the early stages of the animation because I forgot to tape it down, this again is something to improve in the future. The strength of the animation is the character lip synchronisation.

Taking all these points into consideration  I feel that I have done really well on this assignment as this is the first time I`ve worked individually on this type of assignment and I feel very pleased with how the final product was received by my fellow students at the critique .

My Influence Boards

Name:  Daniel Newton                               

Module No: ARD406 Creative Futures 1

Assignment Title: Influence Boards

Introduction to the Influence boards

For this assignment I have to produce 6 separated influence boards made up of a montage of images that reflect my interests and people that have influenced me in different ways. These include a variety of people from different walks of life e.g. engineers, film companies, artists and authors.

Influence Board 1-Railway Design and Innovation


Railways and trains have always been a great interest and passion for me, especially steam engines.

The first two images that I`ve chosen include two early steam engines, Richard Trevithick’s early locomotive (Image 1) and George Stephenson`s famous “Rocket” (Image 2) from the early 19^th century. I am full of admiration for these early inventors, their ingenuity and belief that such machines would work and make a difference to the world in which we live.  

The bridge (Image 3) is the “Royal Albert Bridge” which crosses the River Tamar between Plymouth and Devon, the Tunnel (Image 4) is called “Box Tunnel” which is 1.83 miles long in length and is located between Bath and Chippenham. Both the bridge and Tunnel are the creative work of Brunel (in the 19^th century) and both are still in use today. Whenever I see railway bridges and tunnels like these it makes me wonder how all these clever engineers managed to design and  build them, especially considering that they didn`t have  the assistance of  technology and machines that  we have today.    

The image of the steam engine (Image 5) is the famous “Flying Scotsman”, built in the early 1920s by Sir Nigel Gresley. This is my favourite steam train and which I have seen on numerous occasions. Every time I have seen this especially when I saw it working I am amazed at the power and strength and the fact that it could do 100 M.P.H.

The Station (Image 6) is Paddington station in London, the image shows the old roof structure and modern electric trains. I am impressed with how the old and new can blend in together.

Influence Board 2-Reverend Wilbert Awdry

As railways and trains are one of my best interests, the “Thomas the Tank” book series has had a big influence on me when I was young  because it tells a lot of stories of fictional trains, involving them a series of incidents and events which are all based on real life railway incidents. The trains are also given names, lives and personalities and by reading the books they captured my early imagination.

 Most of the books were written by a British author named “Rev. W. Awdry” (Image 1) and a couple of others were written by his son, Christopher Awdry (who the books were written for originally).

At home I still have the entire big book collection of the series; the second image shows the book cover of the collection. The third image shows an illustration from one of the books and on the bottom, left hand corner of the image is the author with his wife and children.

The books were also adapted into a children`s TV series in the 1980s (Images 4, 5 and 6), I have a couple of the episodes at home on videos. I enjoyed the TV series as much as the books and I find that they are just as imaginative as the books themselves. The books encouraged me to read in a regular way for enjoyments and pleasures. 

Influence Board 3-Disney/Pixar

I am a big fan of the Walt Disney film company; over the years the films created by Disney have had a big influence on me. I love the animation style used in the films because I feel they are very colourful, this helps the films to stand out from other similar films. The films shown in the top three images are my top favourites of the Disney film series. I feel they are very well created, they are imaginative, heartbreaking and they are full of magic of film entertainment.

“Robin Hood” (Image 1) tells a legendary tale of Robin Hood, as he battles to save England from the slavery of the ruthless “Prince John”. Rather than using real people, the characters are humanised animals and I feel this is quite an effective way to portray a story, as it shows the true natures of the characters e.g. Robin Hood was as sly as a fox and he is portrayed as a fox.  

“The Rescuers” (Image 2) tells a fictional story of two mice who set out to save a kidnapped little girl, from and evil woman who is intending to use the girl to retrieve a valuable diamond. This is my second favourite of the Disney films. I enjoy seeing how the mice fought to save the little girl and how they successfully defeated the evil villainess.

“Lilo & Stitch” (Image 3) is my top favourite of the Disney films; the story is set in the Hawaiian island of Kauai and I like how it tells the story of a lonely little girl who adopts and alien from space, whom she believed was a dog. The alien intends to use the girl as a protection shield from his alien hunters who are trying to re-capture the alien. I also like how the artists used water colour painting technique to capture the glory and beauty of the tropical Hawaiian beaches and culture. I consider this the best of the Disney films.

 The fourth image shows one of the Disney home video introductions.

There is another film company in co-operation with Disney, which has also had a heavy influence on me, the company is Pixar. I feel very intrigued at the animation style the company uses in the films. All the films are computer animated and the animation is so realistic it looks as though it the films were shot in live action, which was my first impression when I saw “Toy Story” as a child.

Image 5 shows the company`s famous logo introduction, with the hopping lamp bouncing on the I, crushing it and having to take its place.

The bottom images show three of my favourite films from Pixar. I feel that Pixar films are very imaginative indeed. “Toy Story” (Image 6) was my favourite film as a child; as it really captured my imagination of what toys would do once you leave the bedroom, it was also the first film to fully animated by computer.

Another one of my favourite Pixar films was “Monsters Inc” (Image 7), I feel that it`s an interesting way to wonder what is lurking behind your closet door at night.

My favourite of the Pixar films today is “The Incredibles” (Image 8); I consider it the best of the Pixar films because of all the hilarious actions it contains.

All of these films have helped me be creative with my college assignments.

Influence Board 4-Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl (Image 1) is another one of my favourite book authors. Many of his books have had a major influence on me and I have collected most of his books.

I feel that his books a very creative, imaginative and they are very well written, they are definitely books that everyone should read. My favourite of his books is “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, this is because it tells the story of a boy named Charlie Bucket who wins a free golden ticket into a chocolate factory and I wish that I could get a free ticket to enter Cadbury’s chocolate factory, as I really like their chocolates.

Some of his books like “James and the Giant Peach” (Image 2), “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (Image 3), “Fantastic Mr Fox” (Image 4) and “Matilda” (Image 6) have been made into films, some of which I have at home. I feel that they are just as exciting as the books themselves and compliment the books.

Two of his other books that I really like are “The Twits” (Image 5) and “George`s Marvellous Medicine” (Image 7). These have not been adapted into films and I feel they should be adapted.

Influence Board 5-Vincent Van Gogh

Over the years I have seen and admired the work of many great artists. One of my favourites is Vincent Van Gogh because of the bold style and variety of work that he produced.

The four portraits (Images 1, 2, 6 and 7) are self portraits of himself that were all painted at different times my favourite is Image 1 as I like the dominant colour of the painting that is blue.

The painting of “The church at Auvers-Sur-Oise” (Image 3) is impressive and shows fine architecture which always impresses me when I see real buildings.

The painting of “The Starry Night” (Image 4) shows an interesting brush technique that I have tried to copy when I was in school. The simplicity of the “Sunflowers” painting (Image 5) is definitely something that I admire.

Influence Board 6-Harry Potter

“Harry Potter” is a series of books that were written by a British a female Author named J.K. Rowling (Image 1). Due to the popularity of her books she has become the 13^th richest woman in the UK. There are 7 books in the whole series (Image 2), I have read and collected all the books as they are all filled with thrilling breathtaking excitement adventures and fantasy which I really enjoy.   

The popularity of the books has lead them be adapted into series of films. All the films have been produced and released on DVD and Blu-Ray (Image 3). At first I had no interest in Harry Potter, it wasn`t until I saw the first film on video when I started to gain my interest in Harry Potter, as a result I went on to read the books and I have collected all the films on DVD. My favourite actor in the films is Daniel Radcliffe (Image 4) who is rich and famous for staring as Harry Potter, along with Rupert Grint and Emma Watson (the actors of Harry`s friends, Ron and Hermione). I feel they were very good actors for the characters and there could have been no better actors for them.  I was also influenced by the steam engine (Image 5) which was used to portray the Hogwarts Express (the train that takes the wizards to Hogwarts school), as Steam trains are one of my biggest interests. The Engine is called “Olton Hall” in reality, but was re-named “Hogwarts Castle”, and painted red for the films.

There is also a series of video and PC games based on the Harry Potter books and films. I really enjoy the games and I believe they are better than the books and films, as I feel they are more adventurous and exciting. I have all the games on Play Station 1, 2 and 3. The sixth image on the board is the cover art image for the first game.

Conclusion

In conclusion to this assignment I tried to collect a variety of images for each influence board. By selecting a combination of authors, films and other interests I have researched fully into things that have influenced me and have discussed the reasons as to why they have influenced me.